Over the next five weeks, Ajijic’s residents will be awakened before daybreak as skyrockets burst in the air, calling the faithful to early morning prayer in honor of La Virgen del Rosario.
While the town’s official religious patron is Saint Andrew, the local community has regarded Our Lady of the Rosary as its divine guardian for nearly three centuries.
The antique statue of the Virgin Mary, cradling the infant Jesus, will leave its home at the old stone chapel on the north side of the plaza at 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 28, for a procession to the church in San Antonio Tlayacapan, where it will remain for an overnight vigil. The revered figure will return to Ajijic the following afternoon, departing San Antonio at 5 p.m. and heading to the Santuario de Guadalupe near Seis Esquinas. Another procession will take place on Monday, September 30, to move the Virgin to the altar of San Andrés Parish, where she will stay for the remainder of the month.
The Holy Mother will be honored daily throughout October, as devoted pilgrims gather in different neighborhoods at 5:30 a.m. for candlelight marches leading to morning devotions at San Andrés.
The tribute culminates on October 31 with a grand late-afternoon procession through Ajijic’s streets, featuring floats adorned with spiritual themes, danzante troupes in colorful native costumes, and marching bands. The celebration will be followed by a farewell Mass in the parish atrium, the Virgin’s return to her chapel, and a lively evening fiesta in the plaza.
The people of Ajijic adopted the Virgin Mary as their divine guardian following their conversion to Christianity with the arrival of Franciscan missionaries around 1531. Historical records suggest that the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception was the original figure of devotion until 1733, when the Virgin of the Rosary took her place.